Comments

dyingov

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Richard Neely, a Charleston lawyer and former state Supreme Court justice, announced Wednesday that two experienced engineers are working with him on his plans to design and build a cracker plant near Montgomery to process natural gas.

Neely recently incorporated Invictus LLC, whose cracking plant will produce a variety of products, including diesel fuel, gasoline, naphtha and ethylene -- a major product used by the plastics industry.

promo61

CTMountaineer

When a southern West Virginia politico like Earl Ray says a company will likely locate a cracker in West Virginia, he definitely means the state will do everything possible to get one in the Kanawha Valley. They only see anything north of Sutton as being a place to rip off to get money in the south.

In general our northern politicians are no match for them. They are far better organized and focused on their objectives, while our representation gets caught up in the largely meaningless partisan rhetoric and ends up giving away the ranch.

rover1958

@dyingov "plans to design and build a cracker plant near Montgomery to process natural gas. "

Might as well be on the Moon for all it would do for the Northern Panhandle. Montgomery is only 28 miles closer to Wheeling than Philadelphia, PA! Besides, any 'building' will again by done by Texas and Oklahoma roustabouts not sniffers, snorters, and huffers Luke, Lem & Zeke from WV.

WVUGEO

"rover" is right about the construction. It'll be done by transients. Further,WV is in a bidding war with PA and OH for the cracker, and it might be instructive to check out an analysis undertaken by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center: "Cracker Plant Tax Credit Expensive for Taxpayers While Promising Few Permanent Jobs". Some of it's conclusions are, that: "the number of permanent jobs created after the original construction phase is several hundred, not tens of thousands"; the tax credits are "an unaccountable economic development incentive that will last for generations", and, that "making tax policy based on estimates of indirect and imputed jobs, rather than real permanent jobs that can be counted is risky, and expensive. Using speculative numbers shortchanges the public." It contains info on other crackers, including some really big ones near the Gulf Coast, and, the actual figures are discouraging.